The Flames Express pulls into DC tonight for a tilt with the Capitals. Saturday's game started with some choppy rails, but the OT victory made for smooth travellin'.
Some Caps news (
www.dcpuckdrop.com)
Quote:
The Washington Capitals (11-9-1) erased the memories of two ugly road games with a fine display at home against the Minnesota Wild (9-8-2) – a team that came into town riding a four-game winning streak.
The Capitals out-shot the Wild 43-31, out-hit them 29-16 and – most importantly won the game 3-1. The top-six forwards, who had struggled of late, produced the goods and combined for 20 shots, two goals and four assists. Defenseman Matt Niskanen scored an assist and had five shots, while the much-improved Dmitry Orlov tallied his second goal of the season. And, of course, Braden Holtby rock-solid in goal with 30 saves.
However, there was a scary moment halfway through the second period when Alex Ovechkin took a puck to the mouth from close range. Bleeding profusely from his upper lip, Ovechkin left the ice in a hurry. However, a few stitches later, he was back on the ice and played a big role in his team’s win.
T.J. Oshie started the scoring halfway through the first period, assisted by Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov during a Capitals power play. It was Oshie’s 10th goal of the season. A few minutes later, Minnesota pulled one back when Nino Niederreiter scored his own power-goal. Only 44 seconds later, Orlov’s scored with a nice snapshot from near the blue line to put the Caps up 2-1; Niskanen and Oshie assisted. There were no more goals until 17:23 into the third when Kuznetsov slotted home during another power play for his fifth goal of the season. Ovechkin supplied a sublime pass for the assist with John Carlson getting the other helper.
It was a huge two points for Washington as the Metropolitan Division is extremely tight so far this season with only five points separating the top team from the bottom team. The Capitals’ 23 points puts them in fifth place but only three points below the three teams at the top (Blue Jackets, Devils and Penguins).
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Some Flames news: (
www.calgaryflames.com)
Quote:
Sean Monahan is coming off one of the best games of his career thanks to his second period hat trick in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon. Monahan's first career hat trick now has him at 118 goals in 338 career games. All three of the 23-year-old's goals came on the powerplay, making him the first player in Calgary's history to net three goals with the man advantage in one period. Claude St. Sauveur is the only other player in franchise history to do so, posting his three powerplay goals with the Atlanta Flames on Dec. 19, 1975 against the New York Rangers.
Johnny Gaudreau heads into this evening's match-up on a nine-game point streak, with seven goals and 17 points during that stretch. During that span, he has six multi-point games and is riding a four-game streak with two or more points. The Flames are 8-1-0 when Gaudreau has two or more points in a game this year.
The Flames have been perfect in extra time this season, going 5-0. That run carries over from last year's tremendous play in the extra frame/shootout - in 2016-17 they were 13-4 in extra time.
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Lineups (
www.dailyfaceoff.com. Unconfirmed, subject to change/shuffle)
FLAMES
Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland
Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik
Bennett-Jankowski-Jagr
Versteeg-Lazar-Brouwer
Giordano-Hamilton
Brodie-Hamonic
Kulak-Stone
Smith (unconfirmed)
CAPITALS
Stephenson-Backstrom-Oshie
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Smith-Pelly
Vrana-Eller-Wilson
Connolly-Beagle-Chiasson
Orpik-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Chorney-Bowey
Holtby (unconfirmed)
The train trip from Philly appears to be a success with all. Wanting to keep the good times rolling, Our Hero is taking the Crazy Train for a spin of his own:
Go Flames